As part of Travel Agent’s recent coverage of Karisma Hotels & Resorts' 10th annual Gourmet Inclusive Vacation Consultants (GIVC) awards, we chatted with Mandy Chomat, Karisma’s chief marketing and sales officer, and found out the company’s extensive Caribbean development plans for the future.
Here are some of the most notable anticipated openings by Karisma in the Caribbean.
Margaritaville to Open in Punta Cana This Year
Rafael Feliz, the CEO of Karisma Hotels & Resorts, recently announced that starting from the agreement signed in early 2017 with the hospitality brand Margaritaville Holdings, the first luxury resorts Margaritaville, All Inclusive Beach Resort by Karisma are being developed, including the first Margaritaville in Punta Cana, whose construction is planned for 2018.
This confirms the news Travel Agent first brought you back in February when we reported on a landmark partnership between Karisma Hotels & Resorts and Margaritaville Holdings to develop a collection of all-inclusive Margaritaville resorts.
The agreement introduced Margaritaville, an All-Inclusive Experience, by Karisma, which will include new resorts built in beachfront destinations throughout the Caribbean and Mexico.
Mandy Chomat, Karisma’s chief marketing and sales officer, told us back in February that Caribbean destinations that were being considered for Margaritaville resorts included Punta Cana; Jamaica, the Bahamas and Antigua, where Karisma recently announced expansions plans to back in December.
Although plans for the Punta Cana resort have yet to be finalized, a spokesperson for Karisma told Travel Agent initial plans call for a 350-room hotel.
Three Hotels Opening in Cap Cana by 2019
Travel Agent also learned that Karisma will be opening three hotels in the Cap Cana resort area of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic by 2019.
The three properties will include Karisma's first El Dorado Royale hotels outside of Mexico.
Daniel Scheiman, Karisma's senior business development manager for North America, told attendees the the hotels will be a Sensimar resort, an El Dorado Royale hotel and an El Dorado Casitas Royale, by Karisma.
Karisma’s Cap Cana project will be built in two phases. The first phase (El Dorado Royale and Sensimar) is slated to open in December 2019 with 519 rooms. The second phase (opening date is still pending), which will be El Dorado Casitas, will have 78 rooms.
Meanwhile, the company also announced plans to expand to the little known Mexican destination of Huatulco. Scheiman says groundbreaking on three hotels, including an El Dorado Royale, a Generations hotel and a Nickelodeon resort, will begin in 2019. All three hotels are expected to open in 2020.
The Future in Jamaica
It was roughly two years ago when Travel Agent was the only media on hand for a monumental signing between Karisma Hotels & Resorts and the Jamaica Tourist Board.
It calls for 10 new Karisma Hotels & Resorts properties representing 5,000 new rooms in Jamaica. All of the rooms will be ready within the next 10 years, with the first scheduled to open around the summer of 2018.
Dubbed "Sugarcane," the resort represents an investment of more than $100 million, Rafael Feliz, Jr., corporate brand manager for Premier Worldwide Marketing, told Travel Agent last year.
Sugarcane will be located in the parish of St. Ann and is about 40 minutes from the Montego Bay airport. It is also 10 minutes from the famous Dunn's River Falls in Ocho Rios.
Travel Agent was told by several Karisma Hotels & Resorts officials that there has been no official discussion on whether the company's new Nickelodeon Hotels & Resorts brand will be included in the resort complex. However, Chomat and other Karisma representatives have confirmed that a Margaritaville resort is part of the plans.
Two Hotels Planned for Antigua
Feliz has also told Travel Agent in the past the company has a plot of land on Valley Church Beach in Antigua that may be home to two Karisma brands by 2019.
Feliz says the land is located to the right side of the existing Cocobay Resort.
Visit www.karismahotels.com and keep visiting www.travelagentcentral.com for all your latest travel news. Be sure to follow Travel Agent’s Joe Pike on Twitter @TravelPike and Instagram @pike5260.
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